The incidence of death caused by cancer has been increasing worldwide. The growth of cancer cells is not the main problem. The majority of deaths are due to invasion and metastasis, where cancer cells actively spread from primary tumors. Our inbred rat model of spontaneous metastasis revealed dynamic phenotype changes in vitro correlating with the metastatic potential in vivo and led to a discovery of a metastasis suppressor, protein 4.1B, which affects their 2D motility on flat substrates. Subsequently, others confirmed 4.1B as metastasis suppressor using knock-out mice and patient data suggesting mechanism involving apoptosis. There is evidence that 2D motility may be differentially controlled to the 3D situation. Here we show that 4.1B affects cell motility in an invasion assay similarly to the 2D system, further supporting our original hypothesis that the role of 4.1B as metastasis suppressor is primarily mediated by its effect on motility. This is encouraging for the validity of the 2D analysis, and we propose Quantitative Phase Imaging with incoherent light source for rapid and accurate testing of cancer cell motility and growth to be of interest for personalized cancer treatment as illustrated in experiments measuring responses of human adenocarcinoma cells to selected chemotherapeutic drugs.

• MeSH
• Neoplasm Invasiveness * MeSH
• Rats MeSH
• Humans MeSH
• Microscopy methods   MeSH
• Cell Line, Tumor MeSH
• Cell Movement * MeSH
• Animals MeSH
• Check Tag
• Rats MeSH
• Humans MeSH
• Animals MeSH
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH

Cell viability and cytotoxicity assays are highly important for drug screening and cytotoxicity tests of antineoplastic or other therapeutic drugs. Even though biochemical-based tests are very helpful to obtain preliminary preview, their results should be confirmed by methods based on direct cell death assessment. In this study, time-dependent changes in quantitative phase-based parameters during cell death were determined and methodology useable for rapid and label-free assessment of direct cell death was introduced. The goal of our study was distinction between apoptosis and primary lytic cell death based on morphologic features. We have distinguished the lytic and non-lytic type of cell death according to their end-point features (Dance of Death typical for apoptosis versus swelling and membrane rupture typical for all kinds of necrosis common for necroptosis, pyroptosis, ferroptosis and accidental cell death). Our method utilizes Quantitative Phase Imaging (QPI) which enables the time-lapse observation of subtle changes in cell mass distribution. According to our results, morphological and dynamical features extracted from QPI micrographs are suitable for cell death detection (76% accuracy in comparison with manual annotation). Furthermore, based on QPI data alone and machine learning, we were able to classify typical dynamical changes of cell morphology during both caspase 3,7-dependent and -independent cell death subroutines. The main parameters used for label-free detection of these cell death modalities were cell density (pg/pixel) and average intensity change of cell pixels further designated as Cell Dynamic Score (CDS). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study introducing CDS and cell density as a parameter typical for individual cell death subroutines with prediction accuracy 75.4% for caspase 3,7-dependent and -independent cell death.

• MeSH
• Algorithms MeSH
• Apoptosis * drug effects   MeSH
• Cell Death * drug effects   MeSH
• Cells ultrastructure   MeSH
• Time-Lapse Imaging methods   MeSH
• Time Factors MeSH
• Cells, Cultured MeSH
• Humans MeSH
• Cell Line, Tumor MeSH
• Optical Imaging methods   MeSH
• Cell Count MeSH
• Models, Statistical MeSH
• Check Tag
• Humans MeSH
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH
• Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't MeSH

Conventional chemotherapy is mostly effective in the treatment of rapidly-dividing differentiated tumor cells but has limited application toward eliminating cancer stem cell (CSC) population. The presence of a very small number of CSCs may contribute to the development of therapeutic resistance, metastases, and relapse. Thus, treatment failure by developing novel anticancer drugs capable of effective targeting of CSCs is at present a major challenge for research focused on chemotherapy of cancer. Here, we show that Os(II) complex 2 [Os(η6-pcym)(bphen)(dca)]PF6 (pcym = p-cymene, bphen = bathophenanthroline, and dca = dichloroacetate), is capable of efficient and selective killing CSCs in heterogeneous populations of human breast cancer cells MCF-7 and SKBR-3. Notably, its remarkable submicromolar potency to kill CSCs is considerably higher than that of its Ru analog, [Ru(η6-pcym)(bphen)(dca)]PF6 (complex 1) and salinomycin, one of the most selective CSC-targeting compounds hitherto identified. Furthermore, Os(II) complex 2 reduces the formation, size, and viability of three-dimensional mammospheres which more closely reflect the tumor microenvironment than cells in traditional two-dimensional cultures. The antiproliferation studies and propidium iodide staining using flow cytometry suggest that Os(II) complex 2 induces human breast cancer stem cell death predominantly by necroptosis, a programmed form of necrosis. The results of this study demonstrate the promise of Os(II) complex 2 in treating human breast tumors. They also represent the foundation for further preclinical and clinical studies and applications of Os(II) complex 2 to comply with the emergent need for human breast CSCs-specific chemotherapeutics capable to treat chemotherapy-resistant and relapsed human breast tumors.

• MeSH
• Apoptosis drug effects   MeSH
• Chloroacetates pharmacology   MeSH
• Cymenes pharmacology   MeSH
• Phenanthrolines pharmacology   MeSH
• Coordination Complexes pharmacology   MeSH
• Humans MeSH
• Neoplasm Recurrence, Local pathology   MeSH
• Cell Line, Tumor MeSH
• Neoplastic Stem Cells drug effects   metabolism   MeSH
• Tumor Microenvironment drug effects   MeSH
• Breast Neoplasms drug therapy   pathology   MeSH
• Necroptosis drug effects   MeSH
• Necrosis metabolism   MeSH
• Organoplatinum Compounds pharmacology   MeSH
• Osmium pharmacology   MeSH
• Cell Proliferation drug effects   MeSH
• Antineoplastic Agents pharmacology   MeSH
• Check Tag
• Humans MeSH
• Female MeSH
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH
• Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't MeSH
• Names of Substances
• 4-cymene MeSH Browser
• bathophenanthroline MeSH Browser
• Chloroacetates MeSH
• Cymenes MeSH
• diammine(dichloroacetato)platinum(II) MeSH Browser
• Phenanthrolines MeSH
• Coordination Complexes MeSH
• Organoplatinum Compounds MeSH
• Osmium MeSH
• Antineoplastic Agents MeSH

Observation and analysis of cancer cell behaviour in 3D environment is essential for full understanding of the mechanisms of cancer cell invasion. However, label-free imaging of live cells in 3D conditions is optically more challenging than in 2D. Quantitative phase imaging provided by coherence controlled holographic microscopy produces images with enhanced information compared to ordinary light microscopy and, due to inherent coherence gate effect, enables observation of live cancer cells' activity even in scattering milieu such as the 3D collagen matrix. Exploiting the dynamic phase differences method, we for the first time describe dynamics of differences in cell mass distribution in 3D migrating mesenchymal and amoeboid cancer cells, and also demonstrate that certain features are shared by both invasion modes. We found that amoeboid fibrosarcoma cells' membrane blebbing is enhanced upon constriction and is also occasionally present in mesenchymally invading cells around constricted nuclei. Further, we demonstrate that both leading protrusions and leading pseudopods of invading fibrosarcoma cells are defined by higher cell mass density. In addition, we directly document bundling of collagen fibres by protrusions of mesenchymal fibrosarcoma cells. Thus, such a non-invasive microscopy offers a novel insight into cellular events during 3D invasion.

• MeSH
• Cell Membrane metabolism   MeSH
• Cell Culture Techniques methods   MeSH
• Fibrosarcoma diagnostic imaging   pathology   MeSH
• Holography instrumentation   methods   MeSH
• Intravital Microscopy instrumentation   methods   MeSH
• Neoplasm Invasiveness diagnostic imaging   pathology   MeSH
• Collagen metabolism   MeSH
• Humans MeSH
• Cell Line, Tumor MeSH
• Cell Movement * MeSH
• Pseudopodia metabolism   MeSH
• Imaging, Three-Dimensional instrumentation   methods   MeSH
• Check Tag
• Humans MeSH
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH
• Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't MeSH
• Names of Substances
• Collagen MeSH

Artifact-free microscopic images represent a key requirement of multi-parametric image analysis in modern biomedical research. Holography microscopy (HM) is one of the quantitative phase imaging techniques, which has been finding new applications in life science, especially in morphological screening, cell migration, and cancer research. Rather than the classical imaging of absorbing (typically stained) specimens by bright-field microscopy, the information about the light-wave's phase shifts induced by the biological sample is employed for final image reconstruction. In this comparative study, we investigated the usability and the reported advantage of the holography imaging. The claimed halo-free imaging was analyzed compared to the widely used Zernike phase-contrast microscopy. The intensity and phase cross-membrane profiles at the periphery of the cell were quantified. The intensity profile for cells in the phase-contrast images suffers from the significant increase in intensity values around the cell border. On the contrary, no distorted profile is present outside the cell membrane in holography images. The gradual increase in phase shift values is present in the internal part of the cell body projection in holography image. This increase may be related to the increase in the cell internal material according to the dry mass theory. Our experimental data proved the halo-free nature of the holography imaging, which is an important prerequisite of the correct thresholding and cell segmentation, nowadays frequently required in high-content screening and other image-based analysis. Consequently, HM is a method of choice whenever the image analysis relies on the accurate data on cell boundaries.

• Keywords
• Halo effect, Holography microscopy, Phase-contrast,
• MeSH
• Artifacts MeSH
• HeLa Cells MeSH
• Holography * MeSH
• Humans MeSH
• Microscopy, Phase-Contrast * MeSH
• Tumor Cells, Cultured MeSH
• Saccharomyces cerevisiae cytology   growth & development   MeSH
• Check Tag
• Humans MeSH
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH

Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma is one of the most aggressive tumours and is typically diagnosed too late. Late diagnosis requires an urgent decision on an effective therapy. An individualized test of chemosensitivity should quickly indicate the suitability of chemotherapy and radiotherapy. No ex vivo chemosensitivity assessment developed thus far has become a part of general clinical practice. Therefore, we attempted to explore the new technique of coherence-controlled holographic microscopy to investigate the motility and growth of live cells from a head and neck squamous cell carcinoma biopsy. We expected to reveal behavioural patterns characteristic for malignant cells that can be used to imrove future predictive evaluation of chemotherapy. We managed to cultivate primary SACR2 carcinoma cells from head and neck squamous cell carcinoma biopsy verified through histopathology. The cells grew as a cohesive sheet of suspected carcinoma origin, and western blots showed positivity for the tumour marker p63 confirming cancerous origin. Unlike the roundish colonies of the established FaDu carcinoma cell line, the SACR2 cells formed irregularly shaped colonies, eliciting the impression of the collective invasion of carcinoma cells. Time-lapse recordings of the cohesive sheet activity revealed the rapid migration and high plasticity of these epithelial-like cells. Individual cells frequently abandoned the swiftly migrating crowd by moving aside and crawling faster. The increasing mass of fast migrating epithelial-like cells before and after mitosis confirmed the continuation of the cell cycle. In immunofluorescence, analogously shaped cells expressed the p63 tumour marker, considered proof of their origin from a carcinoma. These behavioural traits indicate the feasible identification of carcinoma cells in culture according to the proposed concept of the carcinoma cell dynamic phenotype. If further developed, this approach could later serve in a new functional online analysis of reactions of carcinoma cells to therapy. Such efforts conform to current trends in precision medicine.

• MeSH
• Biopsy MeSH
• Cell Cycle physiology   MeSH
• Holography methods   MeSH
• Immunohistochemistry MeSH
• Middle Aged MeSH
• Humans MeSH
• Microscopy methods   MeSH
• Biomarkers, Tumor metabolism   MeSH
• Tumor Cells, Cultured MeSH
• Tumor Suppressor Proteins metabolism   MeSH
• Head and Neck Neoplasms metabolism   pathology   MeSH
• Cell Movement physiology   MeSH
• Aged MeSH
• Carcinoma, Squamous Cell metabolism   pathology   MeSH
• Transcription Factors metabolism   MeSH
• Check Tag
• Middle Aged MeSH
• Humans MeSH
• Male MeSH
• Aged MeSH
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH
• Names of Substances
• Biomarkers, Tumor MeSH
• Tumor Suppressor Proteins MeSH
• TP63 protein, human MeSH Browser
• Transcription Factors MeSH

Resistant cancer phenotype is a key obstacle in the successful therapy of prostate cancer. The primary aim of our study was to explore resistance mechanisms in the advanced type of prostate cancer cells (PC-3) and to clarify the role of autophagy in these processes. We performed time-lapse experiment (48 hours) with ROS generating plumbagin by using multimodal holographic microscope. Furthermore, we also performed the flow-cytometric analysis and the qRT-PCR gene expression analysis at 12 selected time points. TEM and confocal microscopy were used to verify the results. We found out that autophagy (namely mitophagy) is an important resistance mechanism. The major ROS producing mitochondria were coated by an autophagic membrane derived from endoplasmic reticulum and degraded. According to our results, increasing ROS resistance may be also accompanied by increased average cell size and polyploidization, which seems to be key resistance mechanism when connected with an escape from senescence. Many different types of cell-cell interactions were recorded including entosis, vesicular transfer, eating of dead or dying cells, and engulfment and cannibalism of living cells. Entosis was disclosed as a possible mechanism of polyploidization and enabled the long-term survival of cancer cells. Significantly reduced cell motility was found after the plumbagin treatment. We also found an extensive induction of pluripotency genes expression (NANOG, SOX2, and POU5F1) at the time-point of 20 hours. We suppose, that overexpression of pluripotency genes in the portion of prostate tumour cell population exposed to ROS leads to higher developmental plasticity and capability to faster respond to changes in the extracellular environment that could ultimately lead to an alteration of cell fate.

• MeSH
• Principal Component Analysis MeSH
• Autophagy drug effects   MeSH
• Cell Self Renewal * drug effects   MeSH
• Time-Lapse Imaging MeSH
• Endoplasmic Reticulum drug effects   metabolism   MeSH
• Entosis drug effects   MeSH
• Inhibitory Concentration 50 MeSH
• Humans MeSH
• Neoplasm Metastasis MeSH
• Cell Communication drug effects   MeSH
• Mitophagy drug effects   MeSH
• Cell Line, Tumor MeSH
• Prostatic Neoplasms genetics   pathology   MeSH
• Naphthoquinones pharmacology   MeSH
• Oxidative Stress * drug effects   MeSH
• Flow Cytometry MeSH
• Reactive Oxygen Species metabolism   MeSH
• Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic drug effects   MeSH
• Gene Expression Profiling MeSH
• Cell Size drug effects   MeSH
• Cell Survival drug effects   MeSH
• Check Tag
• Humans MeSH
• Male MeSH
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH
• Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't MeSH
• Names of Substances
• Naphthoquinones MeSH
• plumbagin MeSH Browser
• Reactive Oxygen Species MeSH